Day 1

Day 1 was a 443 mile drive to MD to son Brent's house to visit his family.  This is a special weekend as it is Grandaughter Avery's birthday & sister Norah is 4+ months old and is changing so fast.

The first leg of the trip my Mom is with me as she shares her birthday with Avery, so we will have a combined birthday celebration.  Next week I will deliver Mom to visit her sister in FL.

The Prius that hasn't been out for a good drive for a couple of months.  It got 46.6 mpg for the trip today, which is lower than the trips last summer.  The reason for the lower mpg is that I ran the heater.  The engine doesn't run unless it is needed for power or generate electricity, but there is also one other condition the engine will run and it is when you need to heat the car.  This was a first cold weather trip so it got 10 mpg less running the heat on the way down than the same trips to MD last summer.

Yesterday's blog I gave reasons for using the Prius for this year's trip.  Another related reason is that I have become more "green" and wanted more fuel efficiency.  I drive to MD 3 to 4 times a year and VT about 14 times a year and spend way too much money on gasoline.  The Prius has saved a lot of gasoline ands money.  Buying the Prius helped in the commuting costs and provided a great platform for my conversion van.  

As far as the lower gas prices go, I still would have wanted to reduce fuel usage this year on my trip, so I don't have any regrets of selling the campervan.  The less fuel usage and lower fuel costs.

We only ran into a couple minor traffic delays and this made the trip a breeze with less than 6.5 hours travel time.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com